Sony heeft vandaag bekend gemaakt dat Linux is gekozen als Intel-based platform om PSX2 games te 'developpen'. Check:

Sony has confirmed that it has selected Linux running on Intel-based hardware as the development platform for PlayStation 2 games. Speaking at last week's Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Jose, Sony Computer Entertainment's Phil Harrison mentioned in his keynote that all future PlayStation 2 releases would be developed under Linux. Harrison said Sony had selected Linux rather than Windows because developers need "a stable platform". Sony decision to opt for Linux emerged earlier this month on a Japanese games-oriented Web site, and was reported in English by The Register. Harrison's comments at the GDC mark the first official confirmation of the company's shift to the open source OS.

Via AGN 3D kwam ik op deze Starsiege review van Voodoo Extreme. Hier is een stukje:

Once you actually start the game, a nice surprise is waiting for you in the Options menu. Starsiege has A LOT of controls, and while there are only a handful you will be using constantly, it becomes easy to be overwhelmed in the beginning. A suggestion, if I may… use the keyboard and mouse combo instead of joystick, you have more control. With the joystick you have to aim with the hat switch and it becomes very monotonous and annoying. However, once you use the controls for a bit you will become completely comfortable with them, allowing you to smoke some 'brids with the best of them. Another great feature of the interface is the ability to fully customize your Heads-Up Display (HUD). You can change its colors, move the meters wherever you like, and make your HERC feel like home. Kudos to Dynamix for making the HUD so customizable!

There are a couple minor problems with the graphical side of Starsiege however. First, the explosions suck overall. They just seem so flat, and bereft of life (Though when buildings are on fire, it looks cool). Also, the difference between 640x480 and 800x600 isn't much. I barely noticed any difference, and I was kind of hoping for a little more. Finally, the software renderer isn't very good, but who doesn't have a decent 3d card now? Starsiege ships with OpenGL and native 3dfx support, so most gamers should be fine (Note: Make sure you have the latest drivers, located on the Starsiege CD or from your video card vendor's website). These are minor issues, however, and don't have any real negative impact on the overall product.

Op de Pine Security Digest vandaag het bericht dat een 22-jarige student zou hebben ingebroken op de servers van online veilinghuis eBay. Hij had volledige controle over alle transacties en kon zelfs de servers stilleggen.

Kijk hier voor het volledige artikel.

Anand Lal Shimpi heeft maar weer eens een grote vergelijkende test van SDRAMs opgezet, waarbij hij ook aandacht besteedt aan de vraag hoeveel geheugen een gemiddelde gebruiker nu eigenlijk nodig heeft onder W98 en/of Win NT en wat de winst is als je meer bijprikt. Interessant voor tweakers is natuurlijk dat hij meteen effe kijkt welke FSB-speed (tot 133MHz) ze nog trekken.

Bekijk de volledige review hier

Via Coolinfo kwam ik op deze GTA: London review van Gamespot.UK

Hier is wat stuff

Of course, everyone knows that London was the place to be in the Sixties, so it's no surprise to see that decade plundered for the backdrop to the action. Back then, the Krays (craftily re-christened The Twins here) and their cronies ruled the East End and you start this game as a low-ranking mob lackey. You must dash around the city taking phone calls that inform you of your tasks - the daily grind of vehicle hijacks, drug trafficking, gangland killings...

The missions aren't usually too taxing, but the difficulty comes when trying to complete your work while avoiding the attentions of the rozzers. Nicking the odd car doesn't really bother the filth too much, but bump off a bad guy in broad daylight, for example, and your 'Wanted Rating' goes up and soon you'll hear those Panda car sirens. Get caught by the fuzz and you'll lose your weapons and some points as well as fail the mission, which doesn't make you popular with the boss.

The underlying game, however, is unchanged. For all the controversy that surrounded its release, Grand Theft Auto: London was, and is, far less offensive than say, Carmageddon II (zombies or no). The amoral attitude towards crime has its antidote in the fact that the police are victorious far more often than the criminals. So if you enjoyed Grand Theft Auto and need another fix, this will be just what you're looking for.

Lees hier verder. De score was trouwens 85%

Op Coolinfo vond ik wat stuff over beta 3 van Window$ 2000. Niet dat ik er zelf in geinteresseerd ben, maar voor alle Windowsers out there:

The third beta release of Microsoft's Windows 2000 operating system is in the hands of a few beta testers and is on track for a more broad release next month. Although to fully discern how stable it is will require widespread testing, the early release candidate of Beta 3, dubbed RC0, is looking better than the last test release, according to two participants in Microsoft's Early Adopter Program.

The Windows 2000 beta still has its share of bugs and problems related to compatibility with older applications, although the latter is a problem Microsoft officials virtually acknowledged in the release of its Application and Developer Readiness Program, which offers tools to help developers address those problems. But based on a week of testing, one customer was bullish on theimprovements. "It's pretty stable for most of our applications out there," said Jason Bruner, manager of network systems administration at VoiceStream, a PCS carrier.

"On the workstation side, it seems to work almost seamlessly. We haven't discovered any major errors yet," Bruner said. "On the server side, it appears fairly stable. It's ready to go."

Hmmm.... vinden jullie het erg als ik van dat laatste nou eens even heel erg weinig geloof?

Via Coolinfo kwam ik op deze Redline review terecht. Hier een stukje:

The player, that is, you, plays the role of a new member of the Company, a gang whose history in the Battle Wheels universe is legendary. (It’s interesting how the Atari Lynx’ classic comes back in the form of posters and asides in Redline – but after all, Beyond Games did make it, so it’s little wonder) The gang went through some hard times, and is experiencing difficulties with rival gangs. Fresh blood is needed, which is where you come in – and you’re their best hope.

The game isn’t hard to pick up at all. The controls aren’t complex, and what’s relatively neat is that the game introduces diving, which you can only perform when outside the car. Basically, it’s like strafing, but for a longer distance (the screen doesn’t rotate, though). I hope we’ll see more and more of this, because that’s something that should be taken for granted – after all, there isn’t only strafing in the world. There aren’t two pages of buttons, either – movement, fire, aiming and that’s about all. Surprising is the fact that crouch is missing, though. Also, while the normal controls are pretty responsive, I believe strafing needs a slight improvement in sensitivity, as the way it is right now it’s pretty useless because it’s so slow.

Redline kreeg een rating van 88%. Lees hier verder.

Op Coolinfo vond ik wat stuff over Rollercoaster Tycoon die net gereleased is:

Next Hasbro Interactive announced the release of RollerCoaster Tycoon by MicroProse. In RollerCoaster Tycoon players design, build and manage the roller coasters and amusement parks of their dreams. This strategy builder game incorporates hundreds of coaster-building play possibilities, real-life scenery elements and other non-roller coaster rides and attractions as it challenges players to build a working theme park that the demanding virtual public will want to go to.

"Roller Coaster Tycoon brings fantasy, creativity and strategy together into one of the most entertaining and exciting games of the year, " said Tom Dusenberry, President of Hasbro Interactive. Roller Coaster Tycoon for the Windows 95/98 platform is currently available in stores nationwide. More information on RollerCoaster Tycoon can be found at http://www.rollercoastertycoon.com.

Het gerucht van de afgelopen week dat M$ bereid zou zijn om een overeenkomst met de DoJ te suiten om verder procederen te voorkomen bleek vals. In tegendeel: M$ lijkt het liefst zo lang mogelijk door te willen procederen zodat het in ieder geval zonder restrcities NT5 op de markt kan brengen en zijn greep op de softwareindustrie kan versterken. Ondertussen gaat het gerucht dat Bill M$ helemaal wil verlaten -- zijn huidige rol binnen het bedrijf is al beperkt sinds hij een groot deel van zijn aandelen verkocht.

The current rumours were started by those with most to lose – institutions holding large amounts of Microsoft stock – according to sources. And where better to start the rumour than in the Wall Street Journal?

the gnomes in Redmond, are evidently in some disarray. There are probably serious differences of opinion about the delayed management structure that was expected to be announced a week ago. Morale is low, and it is probable that there will be a mass exodus of Microsoft VPs whose shares have vested.

Microsoft's external lawyers will not really be wanting a settlement, since their massive fees depend on the case going on for ever. The big power play will be between VP for law and corporate affairs Bill Neukom, Microsoft's head lawyer, and general counsel (a recent promotion) Brad Smith, who joined Microsoft some years ago after a stint looking after Microsoft's interests very enthusiastically when he worked for the Business Software Alliance in Europe. Smith has always wanted the top job at Microsoft, and he could be the leader of a putsch to overthrow Neukom.

The big question is now whether Gates will resign. He has relatively little to do with the running of Microsoft. He doesn't really understand the technical issues any longer, and cannot contribute any insight. His sole role is as a figurehead, making sales calls at head-of-government level because of the vanity of politicians to be photographed with him.

If Gates goes, then there is a real chance of a settlement – but it should be remembered that Microsoft's aggressiveness is now in the second layer of Microsoft management and moving down to the third layer. Any settlement would be easier to achieve after his departure, but on humbling terms for Microsoft. It seems that a decision has been taken that Gates will not be a rebuttal witness, or the Microsoft propaganda machine would have been building a suitable image.

Insiders weten te melden dat Intel waarschijnlijk al op 11 april a.s. de prijzen van zijn PIII-chips laat zakken, dus ook van veel "low end" processors.

There will be "sizeable" cuts in mobile Pentium IIs and Celerons, but the exact prices have not yet been finalised, the source said.

The PII/333 will disappear as an Intel part on that date, while other Pentium IIs will drop by around $70 or so each.

The Pentium III/450 will drop to just below $400/1000, while the Pentium III/500 will cost $635/1000.

When it is released in June, the Pentium III/550 is likely to cost $750, the distributor said. More significantly, Slot One Celerons will disappear by mid-year, according to our source.

Voor de tweede maand op rij heeft AMD in de Amerikaanse "retail market" meer processoren verkocht dan Intel, ruim 51% tegenover 38%. Het overige marktaandeel is voor Cyrix.

Market research company PC Data said yesterday that AMD had taken over 50 per cent share of the US desktop retail market in February. That is two months in a row that AMD has trashed Intel's retail share.

Voordat AMD een werkelijke bedreiging kan worden voor Intel moeten ze de grote problemen met de productie van de K6-3 450 oplossen.

nVidia gaat een low-end versie van de TNT2 op de markt brengen met de wat suffe naam Vanta (klinkt als...) Hoewel deze chip is bedoeld voor mensen die niet perse the cutting edge op het gebied van hardwarematige 3d-versnelling hoeven is hij toch sneller dan de eerste generatie TNT-chip.

This latest addition to the NVIDIA family is a low-cost, 128-bit TwiN Texel, highly integrated 2D/3D graphics processor, designed specifically for the value-conscious users.

The NVIDIA Vanta provides complete support for video, software and hardware DVD playback as well as the latest system technologies such as AGP4X and flat panel displays.

Nu Red Hat de meest dominante speler is geworden in de markt voor Open Source Software beginnen de eerste (voorspelbare) problemen. Pessimisten zeggen zelfs dat Red Hat zich zal ontwikkelen als een tweede M$ dat alle ontwikkeling zal proberen te smoren en de markt wil beheersen. Een quote van het artikel op ZDnet:

Most controversial, perhaps is the company's decision to kick-start a Red Hat-specific Linux training and certification program, while community-developed efforts are growing in the hopper. Further flustering the hornet's nest is Red Hat's unenthousiastic reception of Linux standards, including a Linux Standard Base (LSB) project to keep various open source flavors from diverging. The LSB project [...] is an industry-wide push to decide what basic components should go into every linux distribution, including programming libraries and user interface specs. By agreeing on a common package developers could theoretically perform one port to make their product available on all linux flavours.

Microsoft lijkt toch niet te willen riskeren dat ze in hoger beroep hun zaak alsnog verliezen. In ieder geval zijn de gesprekken om tot een deal met de DoJ te komen geopend. Een opsplitsing lijkt deel uit te gaan maken van die deal, zo claimen insiders:

According to the source, the sides are getting closer, with Microsoft lawyer Bill Neukom already in discussions with Justice Department officials, as well as representatives from the other 19 prosecuting US states.

Bill Gates, Microsoft's CEO, has decided that rather than have the humiliating trial resume on 12 April, he is likely to get a better deal if he settles now.

Ondertussen is de rest van de wereld nog niet klaar met M$. De South Korean Fair Trade Commission (FTC) maakt zich op om zijn eigen anti-trust zaak tegen het bedrijf te beginnen.